Primary and compensatory restoration activities in Panther Creek are designed to improve water quality; restore, enhance, and create Chinook salmon and steelhead habitat, and reintroduce spring/summer Chinook salmon. The responsible parties will implement components of the restoration plan with Trustee oversight. Implementation will proceed over a period of years, with measures timed to coincide with water quality remediation. All decisions regarding implementation will be made by a Trustee Council comprised of representatives from NOAA, the USDA Forest Service, and the State of Idaho.

Major components of the restoration plan include:

• Restoring water quality in Panther Creek to support all life stages of salmonids
• Reintroduce spring/summer Chinook salmon to Panther Creek once water quality is suitable.
• Excluding livestock from 2.0 miles of heavily grazed private land on Panther Creek to restore damaged anadromous spawning and rearing habitat.
• Excluding livestock from several miles of heavily grazed out-of-basin streams on private land to restore damaged anadromous fish spawning and rearing habitat.

Restoration accomplished to date:

• The EPA-selected remedial program is nearing completion; exceedances of the copper ambient water quality criteria in Panther Creek are relatively infrequent.
• Conservation easements have been secured for fencing to exclude livestock from 1.0 mile of Panther Creek on the Forney Ranch, and 1.0 mile of Panther Creek on the Cobalt Town site.
• A conservation easement has been secured for fencing to exclude livestock from 3.5 miles of Herd Creek, a tributary of the East Fork Salmon River.
• A conservation easement has been secured for fencing to exclude livestock from 6.0 miles of the Lemhi River and 2.0 miles of Big Spring Creek, a tributary of the Lemhi River.